Wednesday, March 23, 2016

First in flight, last in everything else...

Republicans (because of course they are) in North Carolina's State Assembly held a special session today in which they voted on a new bill which supersedes all locally passed anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people and replaces them with the State's own anti-discrimination which completely forgets that there are LGBT people, especially T, but we'll get to that.

Above: Lawmakers in North Carolina making the
rest of us regret letting them back into the Union.

Pictured: the entire North Carolina
State Legislature earlier today.

Why would they do such a thing? Probably because they weren't hugged enough as children but the stated reason is that this is in response to an ordinance passed in Charlotte which among all kinds of important protections for LGBT North Carolinians, including the right of transgender people to use the restroom appropriate to their gender. People lost their fucking minds, some of them wrote awkward raps, others threatened of legislative action. Here's what Governor Pat McCrory said to the Charlotte City Council:

I'm sorry, shouldn't his beef be with
the creepers looking over the stalls?

"This shift in policy could also create major public safety issues by putting citizens in possible danger from deviant actions by individuals taking improper advantage of a bad policy. Also, this action of allowing a person with male anatomy, for example, to use a female restroom or locker room will most likely cause immediate State legislative intervention which I would support as governor."

-Governor McCrory, probably shaking his fist

menacingly while typing with the other hand

"You see, I think about these things.That's why they made me the Governor."

-Governor McCrory

To be clear, the Governor advised against an ordinance that prevents business from discriminating against gay people because imaginary male perverts could hypothetically pretend to be transgender so they can sneak into the ladies' room. If that sounds irrational and draconian to you, that's just because it is both irrational and draconian. It's like coming up with a bunch of discriminatory voter ID laws because there might have been like a tiny handful of suspected cases of voter fraud which, yeah, ok they totally did already.

Then how about this one: it's like banning left-handed scissors because a right handed person might use them to cut out a ransom note.

...but then it's a shitty bill passed by homophobes who do more to
reenforce negative southern stereotypes than anyone on People of Walmart.

This distinction between restroom usage
is apparently the only thing between
North Carolina and total societal collapse

So yeah, Charlotte passed their ordinance and true to the Governor's word, his redstate-shitmerchant word, the Assembly and State Senate passed House Bill 2 in a special emergency session. Yes, over who gets to use which bathroom. You know this is why nobody likes the GOP. Sure, a lot of people are members but I don't think anybody actually likes the party, or themselves for voting for them. How could they? They define themselves by entirely by what and whom they're against. Don't like immigrants? Don't like Planned Parenthood? Don't like gay people walking into your bakery and buying a wedding cake? Well then the party of Lincoln is the one for you, although weirdly it's probably not the party for Lincoln.

Hey, speaking of guns (too soon?), what I don't get is how come there isn't wider support for tighter gun control in North Carolina. I mean, Governor McCrory should be all over new gun legislation. Like, don't guns create major public safety issues by putting citizens in possible danger from deviant actions by individuals taking improper advantage of bad policy? Sure, but I guess the North Carolina legislature has more important issues to deal with.

A person with male anatomy and a gun presenting less of a threat than
transgender people using the correct bathrooms. (source: North Carolina law)